Ciao from Roma! I have to keep this one short, but I did a bunch of the "Angels and Demons" tour today for any of you who have read Dan Brown's other book. For anyone planning on going to Rome, you HAVE to go on the excavation tour ("Scavi Tour") under St. Peter's Basilica. Pretty damn cool being under the church. You go throughout the original Necropolis ("City of the Dead") and end up at St. Peter's tomb. 450 ft directly above St. Peter's tomb is the very tip of the cross that sits above the dome of the tallest structure in Rome. The artistry within the Basilica is incredible, not to be missed at all. If you go, make sure to hitch on to a free tour (all over the place) to learn all you can from the guides. All sorts of incredible detail about Michaelangelo and Bernini's (in particular) work.
Tomorrow, it's off the the Colleseum and the ruins for the Gladiator tour. I plan to stand in the center and chant Maximus, Maximus!. I'll let you guys know how that goes.
Take care, see you all soon!
T
Ciao from Italia. I'm on my 2nd day here in Firenze (Florence), it's quite impressive. Barcelona was definitely all about the food, Firenze is a city of art and history. Michealangelo everywhere, ancient piazzas and statues abound. I did a hike up to Piazza di Michealangelo (sandals were a bad call, but alas, I'm working on my wicked neopolitan sock tan. At the top of the hundreds of stairs, there is an incredible view of the entire city of Firenze. The Duomo easily dominates the skyline. Unfortunately, there's some renovation going on, so I wasn't able to get to the top of the Duomo.
Probably the most stunning thing I saw today was the Statue of David (by MikeyA). Granted, I've seen the replica of him at Caesar's Palace in Vegas, but seeing him live is quite awe inspiring. For those of you who don't know, Big D was carved from a single bigass hunk of marble. If you see how big he is, think about the logistics of carving a perfectly proportioned human being that is scaled to almost 3 stories tall. The details of the musculature and veins are incredible. BTW - Mikey carved David when he was 26 years old. Geez, do I feel like a slacker.
On to the food! Food here is quite good no matter where you go. Assuming you avoid the touristy spots, there's good stuff to be had everywhere. I had a paparadelle w\ wild boar meat sauce. Basically a rustic bolognese over wide paparedelle pasta. Simple, but damn good.
I'll do a giant recap at the end of my trip with all the pictures so you guys can see it all. I want to tell you all about the best lunch I've ever had in my life, that was in Barcelona and it deserves its own spot. You can imagine some of the looks I've been getting as I take pictures of my food everywhere I go (keep those comments about the strange looks I get back home to yourselves).
All for now... 'Derci!
TC
Sadly, I left barcelona yesterday. It was so relaxing and the food was intoxicating. Thanks to my friend Doug, his fiance Sandy, and her family out there, I was treated to some of the best food I've ever had. Simple, delicious, and pleasing to the eye. Subtle little dishes like clams, garlic, olive oil, parsely, and a squirt of lemon - "almejas de gallegas". Just awesome.
I spent the better part of the last 24 hrs on a train zipping from BCN to Milan to Genoa and then finally here to Cinqueterra. All I can say is B.O. is not the exception to the rule here...Europe can get funkarific at times. It's ridiculously beautiful here, but I think I'm going to be bored. I'll be off to Florence tomorrow, but there is a huge street party here in Vernazza, the "Pirate Party". Apparently this place used to be a hideaway for pirates. Other than that, I'm staying at the place renowned to have the best pesto in the region. I'll keep y'all posted.
Hope all is well back home. I do miss it back there, but alas, I will struggle onward.
Ciao!
T
Hello all! All is well on this side of the atlantic. Iīve been in Barcelona (pronounced "bar-tha-lona") for a few days, weīll have limited internet access on this so the updates will be a little less frequent here in Spain.
First off, food here is FREAKIN AWESOME....thatīs with a capital FREAKIN. Tapas, cidre (cider), Paella...paella...paella. I think I could live on that dish for the next week. Seafood, steaks, everything is soo fresh. You want sandwiches? Simple jamon or chorizo on a baguette. The breads here are incredible. I just really canīt explain it. (Are you drooling yet?)
As for my accomodations, wait til you see pictures of the view I have when I wake up...staring out from the 16th floor of my friend Sandyīs apartment out to the stark blue of the Mediterranean Sea. Yowza...
Adios!
TC
PS...Iīm in Spain, I donīt care if I spelled anything wrong.
Ok, so get this...it rains frequently here in London. What the heck!!?! Shouldn't someone advertise this or make jokes about it? My last thought as I was leaving Otto (Otto is my car for those of you who think I'm seeing a straping german man) was,"Maybe I should bring my travel umbrella....nah...it's hotter the hades over there according to weather.com." Right good call. Luckily, I've been able to avoid any of the downpours, by stepping into a coffeeshop or museum for awhile (I'm knocking on wood right now).
Yesterday, I hit up Jamie Oliver's restaurant "FIFTEEN". Quite nice actually. For those of you who aren't familiar with the place, Mr. Oliver picks 15 underprivileged kids, puts them through cooking school, then puts them to work at the restaurant. You can see that the jr. chef's are in training, but there are plenty of sr. staff/chefs to keep the restaurant operating at a high level. I had a prosciutto/white peach salad for an appetizer, then a risotto with clams, muscles, monk fish. In both cases, the key to each dish was the olive oils that they used. For the salad, the olive oil was more buttery. For the entree, the olive oil was more peppery. It was all good. I got to take a mini tour of the restaurant and meet some of the staff, which was pretty cool. How you ask? Apparently, they got the idea that I'm a "food critic for the LA Times and that I'm about to start a massive new restaurant review site in the States". Geez, I wonder how in the world they got that idea??? (devilish grin). It's all good, the staff was all really nice.
All for now...take care all.
TC
Today I discovered that Guinness can be ordered "extra cold" here. I'm in heaven. I had my official encounter w/ fish and chips and a pint (okay...3 of them) of Guinness. Actually, I had some other stout ales...Smith something or other, Guinness-like, but with a different finish, less cocoa-ey for you "con-know-suers". So I've been walking the streets of london, eating fish/chips, drinking stouts, listening to the radio (Sting to be exact)....all's I'm missing is the bad teeth (arguably) and a Beckham jersey.
I've made it to several museums over the last few days, something that needs to be done more back home. All of them are free here except for a donation request. I sat for an hour looking at and sketching (another thing that needs to be done more) a Di Vinci drawing. A-flippin'-mazing (his drawing not mine). I look forward to seeing much more of Leo's art in Italy.
Side note: the keyboards here are F'd up, some of the symbols and keys are in different places...lame.
Hope all is well across the Atlantic.
T
It's 1:40pm on Monday here and I just had a WICKED meal at a local Indian restaurant. Chef Shamin Syed of the Durbar Restaurant has been voted best Indian chef a few times...so not only was his food good, it was certifiably good. Holy damn...The Chef's Special Lorient Chicken was T-A-S-T-Y!!!! (eat your heart out Joe...I have a picture for you). A thick, rich, sauce over Chicken masala. Subtlely spicy, sweet and VERY flavorful. I had a chance to meet Chef Syed, very nice man. I was halfway expecting him to come out wearing a heavyweight title belt like a wrestler (that's how random my mind works) because his accolades were plastered all over the walls and menus and even on the after meal chocolate they give w/ the bill (seriously). He turned out to be very gracious and extremely knowledgeable. Look this place up if you're in London!
I'm off to sleep through some jetlag and a bit of food coma. Then it's off to see some abbeys and squares...
TC
Aug 15th, 9:00am...After a whole thrilling day of flying and sitting, I've landed at Heathrow. HELLLLOOOO LONDON!
9:20am My bags have been lost. NO FREAKIN' WAY....as it turns out, YES freakin' way. To quote my man Albert...:Lovely.
So I make my way down to my hotel near Notting Hill, I find out that I can't check in for 3 hours. Double Lovely. Not wanting to let this get the best of me, I immediately seek out an "authentic english breakfast" - eggs, beans, toast, juicy slabs of bacon, sausage, and a big hot steaming cup of coffee....I skipped the blood pudding this time. Absolutely brilliant. Totally charged me up to walk around a bit more. With an hour to kill, I found contentment under a little tree in Hyde park and took a nap for a bit. 2 o'clock rolled around pretty quick and I checked in to what has to be the smallest room in the world. Luckily, I had packed an extra change of clothes in my carry on, so I could shower up and change. And thus...I was off and running...
Note - I can't figure out anyway to get the pictures off my friggin' camera...thus, these posts my all be pictureless til I get back. Apologies, you are stuck w/ my quick but dim wit.
That's all for now...hope all is well with everyone. TC
Hello World!
I'm almost off and running for my trip to Europe - London, Barcelona, Rome and some spots in between. I'm off to look for good eats from around the world, sample assorted smoked/cured pork products, wander the streets, sit in cafes and people watch (read: make fun of Euros).
For the two or three people that might be interested, I've created (actually, my friend Joe created it) this site for me to hopefully share some random thoughts and pictures from Europe. You can enter any comments you might have down below, keep it relatively clean or I will open cans of whoop ass.
Ideally, this stuff will brighten someone's day and maybe inspire some to get out and see the world too!
CHEERS!
ADIOS!
ARRIVADERCI!
Terry
PS - Meet my nephew Kyle! 